Shotlist

Presents frank discussion of how much affection there should be between a couple going steady. How far can young people go in petting and still stay within the bounds of social mores and personal standards is one question considered.


Ken Smith sez: Yet another depressing Crawley film. In this one, Laurie comes home from a date in tears because Jeff tried to steer her into "wrong behavior." "Oh, Mother, I don't know what to think," she cries. "I'm so mixed up!" But mother is reassuring. "Your physical urges fight against your reason," she explains. "In the height of emotion it's not always easy to think things through." We are then shown a very sad vignette of Eileen, whose physical urges were stronger than Laurie's. She had to leave school (and get married, of course) while her boyfriend, who wanted to be a lawyer, now has to work in a steel mill. They are a very sad couple, as are all people in Crawley films who make the wrong decisions. This film ends as Jeff and Laurie, now reconciled and with a more mature outlook, come back from a date and find a note telling them that her parents won't be home for at least several hours (what parents in their right minds -- especially in a film like this -- would leave a note like that?). Will Jeff and Laurie succumb to temptation? We are left to wonder -- but it doesn't look promising.
Shows a 1957 DeSoto automobile.

A summer night. Outside a quiet suburban home, the crickets are chirping. A late model tailfinned car brakes to a halt. Mary jumps out, runs up to the house, away from Jeff. The front door slams shut. Mary, in anguish, leans against the inside door.
She confides in her mother. "We parked...and things seemed to happen...until we nearly --" Mother closes her eyes in pain, but answers, "You know, dear, I was young once, too. Perhaps I can understand something of what you feel." Then, a scant few minutes after How Much Affection? has begin, she delivers its central message:
"First, well, it all seems quite a lark. You like someone, he likes you. Everything is fun and affection. Then, all at once, you can find yourself in a situation when your physical urges fight against your reason. Then those fine thoughts of love and affection can suddenly get twisted....If these strong feelings lead you into behaving unwisely, well, the outcome can be guilt and frustration, and these are the things that can spoil the chance of your finding the very love that you're looking for." She is addressing the camera, now.
Mom continues: "In the height of emotion, it's not always easy to stop and think things through. But if you'll, if you'll just slow down the rush and pressure of your feelings a little, then judgment has a better chance to take hold and guide you away from wrong behavior. When you can rely on judgment rather than emotion to rule your behavior, as you did tonight, then you'll really be grown up. I can help, by talking things over with you and giving suggestions, but you'll have to work our your own best way to make emotions work for you and not against you." They hug. Mary is smiling.
The rest of the film shows Jeff and Mary trying to construct a relationship that is based on more than sexual attraction. In so doing, they have the eloquent example of friends Eileen and Fred, who were forced into a shotgun wedding, had a baby and couldn't stay in school. Fred's aspirations to be a lawyer are dashed. As for Eileen, one of her friends says it all: "Imagine marrying someone who has to marry you." Eileen even wonders whether her friends will stop to acknowledge her on the street.
It's party time. Jeff, somewhat inarticulate, asks Mary if she will wear his school ring. She consents and takes it. They kiss. A real kiss. They are overcome emotionally, and start to dance again. The other teens start to make out. On the way home Stu and Marge, their double-dates are making out in the back seat; they want to "go to the port and park awhile" but Jeff refuses. The other couple razzes them for being "pills" and leaves. Jeff and Mary endure this verbal abuse silently. Mary invites Jeff in for a sandwich and to see her parents; he accepts. A note says Mom and Dad will not be back until about two; they put on music and dance. This is the moment of temptation, but Mary rechannels it into food. Speaking seductively, she offers Jeff ham, tomato, bacon, cucumber. They kiss. Off screen we hear an echo of Mary's mother's words about slowing down and Jeff's words about not losing everything for a few minutes of pleasure. They dance cheek to cheek.
"How far to pet?" The question stirred fifties and sixties educational filmmakers sufficiently to produce several films. Besides How Much Affection, there was How to Say No: Moral Maturity (Coronet Instructional Films, 1951) and How Do I Love Thee? (Brigham Young University, 1965), and the question was constantly broached in period teen advice manuals. Quite frequently, petting was the hidden issue behind the controversial question of whether or not to go steady, which was itself treated in a number of films. All of these films were a response to the sexual acceleration in late 1950s teen culture, when peer pressure and prevailing "street morality" favored heavy petting.
How Much Affection? scores a plus by avoiding any prescriptive rules and regulations, but my gut feeling is that teens had a hard time identifying with the film. For one thing, the kids look much too old for their parts, like adults trying to play teenagers. For another, not all teenagers might respond well to such an open agenda, asking them to think things through and find their "own best way to make emotions work for you and not against you." This is a tall order for any age group. Finally, Jeff and Mary's successful management of their mutual desire depends on alienating their friends outside their relationship, and this kind of solution would be problematic for most people.
Nonetheless, Crawley films always seem to live in three dimensions when compared to the flat and formulaic educational films made by most U.S. makers. Their higher production values and superior acting may focus our attention on the film more than on the message it's made to impart, but result in a movie that's a complex creature filled with open-ended clues about its time. And, after all, this is why we value ephemeral films today.




DATING COUPLES TEENAGERS PETTING FAMILY LIFE KISSING COURTSHIP LOVE ROMANCE SEXUALITY INTIMACY GOING STEADY AFFECTION ADOLESCENTS SOCIAL GUIDANCE MORALITY STANDARDS BEHAVIOR
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